Factor No Factor

An Arch (broodmare sire) colt in the backyard a spitting image of the photo at left is ok with us. I recollect that moment during the 2007 Faisig Tipton internet bidding and sworn like the plague to avoid unraced mares (never know about the breathing), and in walks an obvious possible exception to the rule having an unraced mare by Arch with no one bidding. Is that possible, I was reflecting on my sworn rule?

Well...I was thinking (quickly, since Internet bidding is about 15 sec behind real time) concerning my elevated opinion of Arch--as around here we favor major league athlete type stallion photos, impeccable pedigree and virtually unblemished race record to boot. Few had caught on to Arch at that point, but around here, we had. The farm took me to $3500 and ooops, we owned him. Same horse I just got through with a riderless speed work in the mud. Bruise is gone, looks like.

Listening to the handicapping shows I was a little surprised at the complete oversight of ArchArchArch as I sort of figured ex-jock William Fires, inspired by being on the TC trail, probably has an idea of getting a horse physically ready for a major race even absent any scientific training protocol.(Edit: change "complete oversight" to Joel on TC Insider picking AAA. Nice job!)

And, indeed after the win ArchArchArch was quite rubbery legged in the walking ring. We may fail to see him again, and there's zero way that horse gets 1.25 miles with his fat man's stride. Nevertheless, some inspiration if we could ever get going with Rollin'Rodney, his half brother.

I never saw the PPs of the Oaklawn, but did have the fleeting thought--how can they so completely ignore Asmussen. Another self pat on the back for that one. Terry Wallace, race caller sounded as if maybe he'd had one too many before the race or is going blind, unknown which. The Factor looked out of it from the get go. You can sort of see when a horse is galloping weakly. Possibly cooked by a suicide pace/gave appearance of filing to handle track on this day. If he stopped breathing as they reported, this is common when a horse runs out of air due to lack of conditioning for the pace. Same deal with Baffert's horse Conveyance in the Derby, was that last year?

As to the Blue Grass, is there a more perfect strategy than that of the winner when you have inferior warm ups. The horse gets his warm up at the start of the race and then puts in his Zenyatta stride down the lane against horses exhausted by early effort without appropriate warm up. That is a nice huge horse. Trained by Albertini personally I'd avoid holding my breath on him in the Derby. He'll be done in by the training. Even with the perfect intelligent ride, the horse looked weak due to his training protocol against weaker--and note that without my looking at the PPs.

Our training has recommenced. 3 riderless speed in the last week. If the weather turns we'll be back at it.